420-AT1-UM – Introduction to Business Analysis – CASE STUDY
Saturday, July 13, 2019
Background:
Jennifer Furniture Inc company was founded by Eric Smith and named it after his daughter 30 years ago.
The company started manufacturing custom, hand-crafted wooden antique furniture. It was Mr. Smith’s
dream since a child when he started working with his hands to create different miniature Christmas
ornaments, moved to wooden toys and eventually to his family wooden kitchen table and chairs by the
age of 16. He was off to college and university to obtain his education and received his Bachelors in
Economics. He got a job as an Economic analyst in a big company where he met his wide. When the first
child was coming, he realized that his passion also came back and created his daughter’s room furniture.
From that moment he and his wife agreed to start looking into making his dream come true: create top
quality furniture that will last forever. And the dream finally had a destination …
Present Situation
Jennifer Furniture Inc company provides superior solid wood furniture and its reputation over the last
three decades ensured excellence in every step of the customer’s purchasing experience. Their product
lines increased from tables, chairs and bedrooms sets to include cupboards, desks, chests and trunks,
stools and benches. They now have two manufacturing plants and over 250 employees under their
umbrella.
Each plant has its own Plant Manager and Supervisor and their own warehouse storing materials, parts
and finished goods. The warehouse managers (Mr. Philips and Mr. Larry have been in the company for
20 years) ensure the proper storage of all materials and finished goods and is also responsible for the
planning of transporting the goods to the end customer.
The Production Planner/Supervisor Mr. Jones is responsible to schedule the productions runs by
scheduling the proper resources, equipment required and parts required in order to avoid delays and
improve work force productivity. He has been with the company for almost 20 years and he likes doing
things the old-school way.
The company has a central Human Resources, Purchasing, Customer Sales, Accounting, Legal and
Information Technology departments at the head quarters.
Although the company is still growing its sales levels, Executive management recently requested a full
audit and some of the results on inventory and financials were disturbing:
For the last 2 years the company has not actually met the forecasted sales demand, which
resulted on customer orders being delayed. Their stock inventory seems to be depleted faster
than the customers orders committed dates, which makes no sense. Production is at full
throttle with currently 3 shifts working and having a 24-hour production line and yet still orders
are being delayed.
Another finding was that some of the suppliers have changed the quality of wood which
resulted to an increase on customer complaints and returns.
Financial statements of last year were misstated. It seems that the Balance Sheet has been
understating the Accounts Receivable which skews the accounts in the Balance Sheet in favor of
non-liquid assets
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420-AT1-UM – Introduction to Business Analysis – CASE STUDY
Saturday, July 13, 2019
Organizational Chart:
Today:
Jennifer was very upset with the findings of the overall audit. She started in the family business right
after university holding positions from the bottom and moving up quickly as she wanted to learn all the
aspects of the business and contribute to its growth. But last month her father promoted her to the
new CFO of the company when the last one retired. And the responsibilities of course quadrupled.
She really needs to step back and take the time to review the business as whole, but she never seems to
have the time. Now with the audit results in front of her, she knows she needs to do something.
She called an executive management meeting to discuss the results of the audit.
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420-AT1-UM – Introduction to Business Analysis – CASE STUDY
Saturday, July 13, 2019
Executive Management Meeting:
The VP of Sales & Marketing requested a mandate to re-train all of his Customer Representatives to the
existing product lines specifications (e.g. wood type, dimensions, colour scheme, styles e.t.c.) but he was
extremely unwavering that his people are following the right processes when placing an order and when
they are committed to a delivery date.
The VP of Inventory and Logistics department was extremely surprised to hear from the CFO that orders
are not fulfilled on time due to inventory shortage especially for items such as Tables & chairs and desks
which are the most popular items and the sales have been increasing steadily for the last 15 years by 5%
per year. He had put in place the proper minimum inventory “On Hand” level in order for this not too
happen. His first action is to request a Physical inventory count in both warehouses.
The Director of Purchasing insists that their vendors are continuing providing them with top quality raw
materials and that the customer complaints are due to misinformation provided by the Customers Sales
department.
The VP of Manufacturing is extremely pleased with his department and his employees. All of his
employees are very dedicated and meticulous on following processes and producing top quality end
products. The process of using the Product Information Slip (PIS) throughout the Product Life cycle is
deemed essential as it lists all the raw materials used, the activities and hours occurred as well as
confirming quality inspection and Readiness for Packing and Shipping.
Page # 3
420-AT1-UM – Introduction to Business Analysis – CASE STUDY
Saturday, July 13, 2019
Intro to Business Analysis Assignments:
Assignment # 1:
1. What could be the company’s Vision and Goals?
2. What could be the company’s long term strategy?
3. Identify some of the business requirements that you need to analyze further.
4. Who could be some of the business analysts that could work on a project as SME and what
would there be their role?
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420-AT1-UM – Introduction to Business Analysis – CASE STUDY
Saturday, July 13, 2019
Assignment # 2:
1. Who could be some of the stakeholders in this case study? What would be there role?
2. Describe the BACCM for this case study: Deliver Value from a Solution to a Need of a
Stakeholder in a Context of a Change:
Assignment # 3 (Final Document):
Produce a Business Case in one page based on the class material and readings for this specific case
study.
